Tri-Club visit to Berlin

Most of us left Bristol Airport the evening before the official trip was due to start, to give us a day to orientate ourselves before we met our colleagues from the French and German Clubs and got down to business. Some intrepid members travelled from Heathrow or by train – but even that didn’t keep them safe from catching Covid!

Failing a ‘petit train’, a hop-on, hop-off tourist bus often seems like a good way to start exploring a place. Once seated, we learnt that the Memorial Church, visible from the rooftop bar of our (very comfortable and perfectly located) hotel had had its spire sliced off by an American bomber. It has now been rebuilt as a Memorial and houses the Cross of Nails rescued from the first Coventry Cathedral after it too was bombed in the war.

A whistle-stop orientation tour followed, until we jumped off to explore one of my enthusiasms – Art Nouveau or Jugendstil architecture. In Berlin we could see the transition to Art Deco . . .While there, we also explored one of Bill’s enthusiasms – beer. Jumping back on the tourist bus was a bit more difficult as there was a demonstration going on which blocked the road for hours – so we took on the public transport network. Fortunately the Tourist Information Office had a large scale map for the visually challenged . . . and we managed to return to the hotel in time to walk over the road to our first official engagement – supper in a very pleasant local restaurant.

The next day was full-on entertainment and tourism. We travelled – in the rain - to the New Wing of the Charlottenburg Palace, where Harald, President of the German Club, provided an exceptionally well-informed commentary in English. Those who had been before said it was much more interesting than the official guides’ . . . I was very taken by the portrait of a Prussian princess with short hair. This might be the only  eighteenth century portrait of a girl or woman with short hair in existence, unless anyone knows differently! We were also very interested to see, in the Old Palace, particularly in the Porcelain Room, an interesting variant on trompe de l’oeil. In this room and in some others, the picture on the ceiling turns into a three-dimensional sculpture as it nears the top of the wall. So the stag in this hunting scene, and the lower leg of the cherub, are sculpted although the rest of the cherub and the stag’s antlers are painted.

Following our tour of the Palace, we made our way – through another downpour - to the river to take a pleasure boat with lunch provided. This gave us an opportunity to see some of the sights from a different angle! Conversation flowed freely between the three Clubs, no-one fell in and no-one missed the boat. On completion of the river trip, we adjourned – in light drizzle - to the ‘Palace of Tears’ where the Friedrichstrasse station used to be. This was the main civilian crossing point between East and West Berlin and included some very poignant displays. The time flew past until we had to leave – collecting our umbrellas which we still needed - for our final visit of the day past the iconic Brandenburg Gate to the Reichstag, which had been bombed and restored with a glass dome built by the English architect Norman Foster. The guides for this visit were extremely well-informed and interesting, and we had to drag ourselves away to have time to change for the Gala Dinner – which was held at what might have been the best restaurant in Berlin. It was superb. The three Presidents spoke, all in English which was kind of them, and talked a bit about the joint working that they are promoting through the tri-Club arrangement – but really they were embodying the joint working which we all felt we belonged to. And the rain had stopped.

For most of us, that was the end of the official business, but most people had arranged to stay on for a day or two. The three Presidents met again in the morning to thrash out the detail of the next project. This is the one put forward by Bathavon, and is called ‘The Orchestra of Everything.’ It was featured on ITV news in the summer, and is about the power of music to transform children’s learning and behaviour in school. It started in St Michael’s School in Twerton, where we already have a project to support children’s reading, and the three Clubs have agreed that it should be funded.

Several of us went to Potsdam before we left for home. Potsdam is where the Prussian Emperors had had their summer retreats. Here was splendour on a much more relatable scale, although even the tiny palace had a massive amount of gold inside. The picture gallery was lovely, in a heavily gilded way, but I couldn’t find the Artemisia Gentileschi painting I thought was here. It was apparently in the New Palace, the other end of the park so it stayed unviewed by us. There were compensations though – this seventeenth century painting of a boy ice-skating, in a wisp of voile and open-toed sandals, had me sniggering. It’s amazing how art galleries can produce unexpected delights! The palace itself was exquisite. In one of the guest rooms there were images from nature on the wall decorations and in the chandelier – difficult to photograph but breathtakingly gorgeous.

On our last day we decided to walk through the park. This is where we saw a  brilliantly subversive image, outside the World Culture Centre. Stuart had told us the Germans had an amazing sense of humour!

The changing colour of the leaves signified that our time in Berlin was coming to a close. We had the most wonderful time and extend the most heartfelt thanks to our German hosts, our French comrades, and in particular, to Stuart Andrews who undertook the entire organisational task with great (almost Germanic!) efficiency and (almost French!) charm.

Next year in Tours!